University of Virginia Library

Dear Sir:

There are those in the University
community who have been wondering
when the "University of Virginia
Magazine" will come out.
There are those in the community,
on the other hand, who are not
wondering when the UVM will
come out.

In my position as Editor, I have
been wondering when it will come
out, and, fans, it will come out. But
it will be a new and revolutionary
publication which has discarded the
old bourgeois label of "UVM"
under which it declined to debt and
ruin, and it is now to be known as
the "Spectator." Gone it its old
crypto-fascist image; gone is the
lackluster collection on inanity and
insanity; gone is its sole, degenerate
competitor, that running dog of
the Wall Street Bankers Clique,
"Rapier." Its editorship fell to me
by default, but now there is, at long
last a more-than-worthy successor
to the "Spectator" of several years
past whose presence was banned by
out ever-wise Board of Visitors who
sought, in all of their customary
wisdom and foresight, to silence an
oft-ungentlemanly press for the
benefit, supposedly, of the student
body which then so soundly supported
it. As R. Crumb might say,
"Ya kin nevah keep a good rag
down, Mama!"

And we've sho' got us a rag now,
Mama! Our rag-tag staff this year
numbers among its members that
grizzeled, bitter, and long-dormant
disciple of Whatever, Anarchist
Walker Chandler. His illustrations,
along with those much better ones
of Tom Smith, and writings have
helped make the magazine what it
is such as it is (far be it from me
to take credit for those activities
outside of the jungles of the
editorship). Scholars C. Swift
Dickey and L.L. Estes have made
their staff debuts in their never-to-be-forgotten
study of the twisted
world of Lewis Carroll entitled
(and, I might add, provocatively),
"Phallus in Wonderland." These
four and others of the staff must
together share the blame for the
hilariously irreverent game (suitable
for framing), University: A
game nearly anyone can play.
Credit and/or blame must also be
given to the Jefferson Society,
under whose auspices the magazine
has endured since 1838 and from
whose ranks our staff has been
recruited.

Jerry Elmore's rapidly aging
features give stark testimony to the
difficulties that have been encountered
in putting out our first
issue. In his position as Managing
Editor, Mr. Elmore has had numerous
and nearly fatal contacts with
our printer whose proofreaders, no
less, objected to several alleged
"obscenities" which appeared in
the original magazine. Our naive
literary staff had assumed that the
proper job of a printer was to print.
Mr. Chandler, who has virtually
never been known to use any oath
stronger than "By Saint Lo!"
expressed his "total shock" when
the haggard Mr. Elmore related to
him that "The Story of S" a play
by David Giltinan would be omitted
and parts of "Phallus" would be cut.

At any rate, the "Spectator"
will be on the stands in the next
few days, and I would urge students
to purchase their copies of the
limited edition magazine as rapidly
as possible. It is well worth the
paltry fifty cents that we are asking
for it.

Our magazine is an institution.
As we prove in our first issue, we
can use anybody, with or without
talent, who is willing to work. At
present we haven't an office, but
those willing to join our institution
are invited to contact Jerry Elmore,
Walker Chandler, C. Dickey, or call
me, not collect, at 295-6816.

John T. Clayton
College 3